Entries tagged with “kyoto osaka shinto shrine silver temple ginkakuji” from LINDY-LOO'S LIFE

Konbanwa, duo hajimamashite, desu ka? anata, sushi, sumo, konichiwa, toro, ga suki, ohaio gozaimasu, watashi, hai, asahi, ichi ban, yen, agadashi, samurai..... OSAKA!!!!

It is sad to think that after studying Japanese for two years, this is all I can come up with; however, I didn't even need that on my recent trip to Japan to meet with my favorite half-Japanese girl in the world.

Hana and I started the four day madness of drinking, dancing, and getting lost over and over with, none other than, a cheap, local beer in the airport.

I noticed a few things right off the bat in Japan (besides how beautiful Hana is;).

First off, it was so quiet. The people are more quite, the traffic is quieter, even the Chinese people around me on the plane and in the airport seemed quieter than their usual selves. Secondly, the people in Japan are very polite. This includes not staring at me constantly or pointing, spitting, etc., as well as being overly helpful and courteous.
The air is a lot cleaner and there is some easily accessible natural beauty...two things I have been craving lately. And lastly, it has what I refer to as 'old money'. This manifests itself in far too many ways for me to explain in this posting. Some key points include the buildings being modern but not new; the people being well dressed but not over the top; the general populous being more laid back and able to enjoy life; no one trying to make a quick buck or be someone they are not; with a trend towards making the world a better place, instead of making just your life better.


From the airport we headed into Osaka to Namba. An area where we explored some "alleys" of 3-4 storey buildings, lots of lights, street food, and drunk business men falling all over the place.

It turns out - to my shock and amazement - that the entire world isn't reading my blog daily. In fact, Hana didn't even know I had been to Cambodia or if my mum and dad liked China. Needless to say, we had some serious catching up to do. Hana introduced me to plum wine, which I will be forever addicted to, and then we grabbed some sake from a vending machine (I love Asia) and headed to our hostel room to do just that.

The following day, I bought possibly the greatest pair of goggles ever and we headed to Kyoto for the day.



We started at Ginkakuji Temple, one of 2000 temples in the Kyoto area.


It was beautiful and serene and, as almost all great places on earth are, full of tourists. I was one of them.


That afternoon we met up with Yuko, a friend from Canada, and shopped then ate sushi like locals.

And then bumped into some real locals.


Apparently the night life is better in Osaka than Kyoto so we took a train back to Osaka for an evening of fun. We had no plans but to dance the night away, and as luck would have it, some random guys from Tokyo helped us bump into a pub crawl.....10 bars then 10 clubs over 10 hours. We could dig it...

Although I don't remember his name, there was a point in the night where I was going to marry this guy. I think it had something to do with him getting us into this pub crawl for free. But at about 7am, when we left the bar for the train, the details of the night seem quite foggy. All that is important is we danced the night away as planned, and showed everyone what Canadian girls are made of!

For the next 10 or so hours I took no pictures and fell asleep on and off on a train, on a beach, in the grass, and on a train again. Then as I'd like to remember it, magically I felt better and we were back in Kyoto.

The last day in Kyoto was possibly the highlight. We went to an amazing Shinto Shrine and hiked up a mountain through these never-ending orange gates.


Yes, we danced a bit, drank a bit, and got lost a bit here too.

Thanks for the memories, Hanz!!!!!!